Scratching the Surfaces of Selves

Cainmark's blog

Complete Streets petition for Huntsville, Alabama
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
Reposted from http://hsvbike.com

Please consider signing this petition to have the City of Huntsville adopt the Complete Streets Policy. As you may or may not know Huntsville is the 2nd most deadly city in Alabama for pedestrians. Lets make the streets here safe for all!! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/adopt-complete-streets-policy-in-city-of-huntsville-alabama

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.
Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.
Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
more info can be found here http://www.completestreets.org

Huntsville Map of the city, geared toward bicyclists
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
BASC, The Huntsville Bike committee, has these pdf graphics available of the swell bike route map that's in bike shops and other public areas.

http://hsvbike.com/?page_id=544

As a bike commuter, I greatly appreciate this work, something I could have used back in 1994 when I committed to bike commuting full time after skateboarding and bicycling when my car at the time would often be broken down due to planned obsolescence.

Pick one up even if you're not a bike commuter because it has instructions on bicyclists right to the road and how auto operators should behave in conjunction with them, and beyond that, it's actually a really good map of the city.

Just posted a comment at the Huntsvilledevelopement blog regarding Lowe Mill
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
This comment I made (once it's approved) should show up after this link:

http://huntsvilledevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/09/housing-authority-shifts-to-lowe-mill.html

here;s the comment with irritating mispellings included:

That's not good. not good at all. Lowe Mill is already benefiting. It's already gone from alternative underground with the Flying Monkey Arts Center to above-ground with the Lowe Mill stuff aroudn it.

this happens againa and again ins city after city. The creative class risks going through and living in a rougher part of town, makes it more interesting and the new "cool" place to go and the upper crusts wants to kick out the pople who already live there? Let's not let Huntsville make the same mistake and instead work with people who need help instead of shuffling them off where some people dont' want to see them because it makes them "feel uncomforatble".

OCLC trying to use its EULA to hold freely given catolog data hostage.
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
I see this as a real problem.

OCLC shouldn't own or license public documents.

Provide a service, but a not a service with a horrible EULA.

"As one AUTOCAT poster wrote:
"I find it hard to believe OCLC would attempt to assert an intellectual property right over things such as LC cataloging, which by statute is in the public domain."

Unfortunately, this conception confuses two areas of law. By crafting the Policy as a license, which is perpetual, retroactive and viral, OCLC can effect a sort of ownership--US citizens still own it, but the don't have a right to get it (except, if the qualify, with an OCLC license around it).

Thus, OCLC transforms an expensive service--access to a repository of data that, even OCLC employees admit, would fit on an iPod, with room for 5,000 songs!--into effective ownership. This state of affairs obtains even when all the cataloging and editing was done by other Federal agencies and employees. It is only broken when the library in question itself did the original cataloging. As we shall see, that doesn't help much."

http://ping.fm/7cznz

or use this link

http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2008/12/new-oclc-policy-and-federal-libraries.php

Spineless Dems
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
I pretty much agree with everything Mark Evanier said here:

"And you've got to wonder: If Congress will bend over backwards to overlook the excesses of a spectacularly unpopular administration, what are they going to do for one that America actually trusts?"

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_06_20.html#015429

Cory Doctorow's YA novel _Little Brother_ is a really great read.
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
I just finished Cory Doctorow's YA novel _Little Brother_. Really great read everyone, not just YA should read.

It is available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. download yours. Librarians, ask for print deals.

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

Tweets for Today
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.
  • 15:30 READ:Chris Anderson, Jared Diamond, John Forester, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Hart, Naomi Klein, Steven Levitt, Bill Moyers, Eric S. Raymond. #
  • 21:46 @Ohmu, all non-fiction authors I believe everyone should read works by. Hope Thai Garden food was as yummy as ours was! #
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Interesting Budget America game
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark

It's coming, if not here already. China knows.
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
Surveill the Surveillance. Let's take back the Constitution's hijacked 4th amendment as soon as we can.




http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/surveillancesocietyclock2.html

Tweets for Today
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.
  • 08:52 Today (May 15th,2008) is Bike-to-Work Day. If you have a bike and can manage it, try it. #
  • 12:02 Reading about corrupt politics in Alabama. Most of it commited by Karl Rove and his horrible prosecutors. #
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Tweets for Today
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.
  • 08:53 "Brother Theodore" is a really strange performance artist. Seems like Andy Kaufman took over from him. Walk on all fours. Quadrupelus. #
  • 14:17 Eating a sandwhich and reading Bill Moyers book On Democracy #
  • 22:28 Eating a pizza and reading comic books while listening to an old interview with Stan Freberg. And twittering while I surf my Netvibes. #
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